History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 123

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700

USA > California > Orange County > History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 123

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In Santa Barbara County, in December, 1891, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Harriet C. Martin, a native daughter whose parents were Edwin and Mary Isabelle Martin, pioneers of Santa Barbara County, now deceased. Three children-Robert. Isabel and Percy-have been granted Mr. and Mrs. Parker, and have added cheer to the Parker home. Mr. Parker is both an Odd Fellow and a Mason, holding his mem- bership in the former in Santa Barbara and the Masons in Fullerton.

LEON A. SAYLES .- Well and favorably known in banking circles in Orange County since 1915, but since September 1, 1920, a valued employe of the Union Oil Company at Brea, where his influence as a public-spirited and progressive upbuilder has been demonstrated, is Leon A. Sayles, a native of Michigan, where he was born, in Ionia County, on March 5, 1880. His father was A. W. Sayles, who had married Lodema Ayres; and after Mr. Sayles' death, his family came out to California. Leon had preceded the rest, and arrived in Los Angeles in 1902.

He enjoyed the helpful instruction of the Michigan grammar schools and a first- class business college; and on taking up his residence in Southern California was em- ployed in the U. S. postoffice for about nine years. Then, for four years, he had a ranch of his own in the San Gabriel Valley; and, on selling ont, he went to San Diego. where he remained until 1915.

In that year, Mr. Sayles came to Brea and joined the staff of the La Habra Valley Bank which had been established three years before by C. R. Thomas. For the first year, he was assistant cashier, and then he was appointed to the responsible position of cashier. During the five years that he had charge of this department of the insti- tution's activities, the bank considerably enlarged its business. On September 1, 1920, Mr. Sayles resigned his office in the bank to accept a very desirable and responsible position with the Union Oil Company at Brea.

On November 25, 1903, Mr. Sayles was married to Miss Mande B. Stedman, a member of a family well known in America on account of its varied accomplishment. His domestic and private life, therefore, is all that might be desired; enhanced with the diversion of attention, from time to time, to a flourishing orange grove.

Ever ready to support any worthy local movement regardless of party lines or creeds, Mr. Sayles is a Republican in national politics and under the banners of the G. O. P. seeks to contribute somewhat to the elevation of standards in citizenship. In fraternal matters, he is a Knight of Pythias.

DR. SAMUEL STROCK .- Attracted to the great spaces of the West and its free, out-door life by his love of nature, Dr. Samuel Strock has for the past eighteen years been an enthusiastic resident of the Southland. A scholarly representative of the great science of medicine, although he has retired from its active practice, he still takes a philanthropic interest in humanitarian progress and public affairs and devotes much of his time to reading and research.

A native of New Jersey, Samuel Strock was born at Flemington on February 9, 1857, the son of the Rev. James T. Strock, born in Philadelphia, long honored for his faithful work in the Methodist ministry, who died in the harness in 1881; his mother. who passed away at Flemington in 1857, was Miss Keziah Lamb before her marriage, a native of Philadelphia and a descendant of one of the earliest families that settled in that city. Grandmother Lamb was a Matlack, one of the noted Quaker families, who despite their religious beliefs, served in the war of the Revolution. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. James T. Strock, six of them growing to maturity, Samuel Strock being the youngest of the family.

He took the preparatory course of study at Wyoming Seminary, and for a couple of years was a student in the Pennsylvania State College. Then he matriculated in the University of Vermont and was graduated from its medical department with the . class of '89, with the M.D. degree. He practiced at Lake Placid, N. Y., and while

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there he took a post-graduate course in the New York Post-Graduate College, where so many advantages were open to him.

On October 11, 1892, Dr. Strock was married to Miss Elizabeth Bogart Perry, and one child, Samuel Cornelius, was born to them, living however, to be but two years of age. Mrs. Strock, who was born at Bridgeport, Conn., received her education at Pennsylvania State College; she was the daughter of Rev. Talmon C. Perry, a grad- uate of Yale College and also of Princeton Theological Seminary, and for many years a minister in the Presbyterian Church. He was descended from an old New England family and was closely related to Commodore Perry, the hero of Lake Erie. Mrs. Strock's mother, Sarah Conger Clark, before her marriage, came of old Knickerbocker stock who were the original settlers of New Amsterdam.

To satisfy his desire for the enjoyment of the out-door life and the grandeur of the West, Dr. Strock, accompanied by his wife, came to California in 1902 and located at Santa Ana on a five-acre ranch; the same year he purchased thirty-six acres in Santa Ana Canyon, one and a half miles north of Olive, which was then a stubble field. This land he has brought to a high state of cultivation, setting out Valencia oranges and walnuts. He has since disposed of part of this and to the balance he is giving most excellent care.

Notwithstanding the active part he takes in horticultural development, Dr. Strock still finds time for intellectual pursuits. Intensely interested in literature, his spare moments are taken up with a wide range of reading, and during these years he has accumulated a large, well-selected library, to which he is constantly adding. Well informed on important questions of the day, he is an interesting conversationalist, and he stands high in the esteem of the community as a neighbor and a citizen.

GEORGE PAUL ELTISTE .- A far-seeing and optimistic young man of remark- able energy, whose "hustling" spirit of enterprise, contagious to others, has brought well-merited success, is George Paul Eltiste, the well-known horticulturist. He was born in Phillipsburg, Phillips County, Kans., on September 7, 1892, the son of M. Eltiste, and the eldest of six children, all of whom are living. He was reared on a farm in Kansas, and attended the local public schools.

In August, 1906, Mr. Eltiste came out to California and settled in Orange County; and being still in his teens, he continued his schooling, topping off with a thorough course at the Orange County Business College at Santa Ana. Then he commenced to work for J. C. Williams in his implement store, and after that in a blacksmith shop, where he learned the trade. He next formed a partnership with Chris Ruehle, under the firm name of Ruehle & Eltiste, and they conducted their business very successfully at their shop on North Glassell Street.

Selling out his interest, Mr. Eltiste engaged in ranching and took care of his father's ranch of twenty-three acres. It was then only partly set out, and he finished the planting; and he conducted it for four years. Then he bought three acres of Valencia oranges on East Walnut Street, to which he added by purchase two acres ad- joining and later ten acres more, making him owner of fifteen acres in a body. The ten acres he has planted to Valencia oranges, and the five to lemons. He uses an International tractor in the operation of the two farms, and otherwise employs up-to- date machinery and methods. He belongs to the Central Lemon Association, and is an equally live wire in the Santiago Orange Growers Association.

At Orange, on June 14, 1916, Mr. Eltiste was married to Miss Bertha Schmetgen, a native of Orange and the daughter of George Schmetgen, the local orange grower now retired. Two children have blessed the union-Clarence and Evelyn; and with their parents they attend the Lutheran Church. Mr. Eltiste is a member of the Lutheran Men's Club. In national politics, he is a Republican, but locally is independent and is always interested in promoting the highest American civic ideals.

CARL O. HEIM .- An excellent young man representing one of the good German- American families of Orange, who is rapidly forging ahead as a successful rancher and orange and walnut grower, is Carl O. Heim, of Olive, who married a lady from one of the best families in the social and business circles of Orange. Their home, therefore, on the Anaheim Boulevard, is a happy center of boundless hospitality.

He was born at Bloomington, Il1., on September 13, 1878, the son of Herman F. and Augusta (Mueller) Heim, now retired ranchers at Olive. His father was then a laboring man working at Bloomington, but he later removed to Allen County, Kans., and there bought a farm. When Carl was six years old, the family came west to Cali- fornia; and in 1884 settled at Orange, where Herman Heim worked around for other persons, while he rented land for himself.

Carl grew up on such a rented farm south of Orange, and when twenty years of age engaged to work for C. Lehman, then an expert auditor, on his ranch on Tustin

Ges. Eltute

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Avenue, east of the Santa Ana Cemetery. At the end of two years, however, he went to the Santa Fe Railroad as a section hand, and next became a clerk in the grocery department of Ehlen and Grote's department store in Orange.

During the ten and a half years when he was clerking for this well-known and progressive firm, he married Miss Emma Grote, a daughter of his employer, Henry Grote, and a general social favorite; and afterward came up to Olive where, for three years, he worked on his father's walnut and orange ranch of twenty-four acres. During the next two years, he maintained a partnership with his brother Albert, and together they managed the home ranch.

In June, 1919, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Alfred Huhn, Mr. Heim bought a Valencia orange orchard of eleven acres, one and a half miles to the south of Olive on the Olive Boulevard; and this ranch Mr. Heim is now operating. He is both a stockholder and director in the Mutual Orange Distributors Association at Olive, which has its own well-equipped packing house, and is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Olive as well as of the California Fig Nut Company of Orange.

Mr. and Mrs. Heim are the fortunate parents of four promising children: Alma is in the Orange high school; Elmer, Florence and Esther attend St. Paul's school at Olive. He and his family are members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church at Olive of which Mr. Heim is a trustee. In national politics a Republican, Mr. Heim is first, last and all the time an American and a "booster" for Olive and Orange County.

PETER D. HAX .- A thoroughly progressive, public-spirited man of business affairs, who has attained to an enviable degree of popularity and possessing a wide and powerful influence, is Peter D. Hax, of the Stein Fassel and Hax Mercantile Company of Fullerton. He was born at Saginaw, Mich., on April 13, 1881, the son of Peter Hax, now deceased, who had married Miss Catherine Spain.

After spending his boyhood in Michigan, during which time he attended the grammar and high schools, he engaged in accounting and followed it until coming West in 1907.

On locating at Fullerton, he became secretary and treasurer of the Stern and Goodman Mercantile Company, the oldest concern of the kind in Fullerton, with which he remained for eleven years. In October, 1918, the Stein Fassel and Hax Mercantile Company was formed, and they have grown so rapidly that they now have three branch stores, and employ fifteen people.

A Republican, with broad views as to the relation of party politics to local issues, Mr. Hax is a member of the Knights of Pythias and also of the Elks. Among his out-of-door pleasures is a good game of baseball.

H. A. STEWART .- An energetic, progressive and very successful rancher whose well-founded judgment and conscientiousness have always commended him to his fellow-men, who stand for uprightness and integrity of purpose, is Henry A. Stewart, the walnut grower living one mile southwest of San Juan Capistrano, where with expe- rienced methods and almost perfect system in his various operations, he gets results such as ought to gratify and reward anyone. His self-made career has given him a self- reliance of great value not merely to himself, but to those neighborhood interests in which his progressive influence is always felt. He has brought his ranch up to a high state of cultivation, and there enjoys a good home presided over by an accomplished, devoted wife.

He was born at Lone Pine, Inyo County, Cal., on February 10, 1873, the son of Henry B. Stewart, a native of Painted Post, N. Y., who early came to California with his brother, driving a mule team across the great plains, and settling for a while at Marysville. From there he removed to Lone Pine, where he entered into partnership with John B. Denari, one of several brothers who had made their mark as pioneer merchants in booming San Francisco when that town had plenty of gold with which to buy things and needed someone of intelligence, honesty and enterprise to supply the necessaries of life. Messrs. Denari and Stewart maintained the best store at Lone Pine, and it was while they were doing business together that Mr. Stewart met Miss Catherine Calnan, the daughter of John Calnan, a native of Cork, Ireland, who came to Canada and there he married Miss Annie Mclellan. Mr. Calnan was in the South when the Civil War started and he served under General Stonewall Jackson; was taken prisoner at the second battle of Bull Run and paroled to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he was killed by the fall of a limb from a tree during a storm. His widow married again to Norman McLean and the family came to California and Lone Pine, where Catherine Calnan met and later married Mr. Stewart.

When Henry Stewart was only a year old, his parents removed north to Wash- ington Territory, and there the father, a most industrious man whose health had become impaired, died and left three children, two of whom are living today. One is the suc-

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cessful horticulturist of whom we are writing; the other is his sister, Annie, now Mrs. Grohe of Salem, Ore. Owing to this break in their family, Henry's educational ad- vantages were very limited, and he has since had to reach out and acquire what school- ing he could get from reading, observation and contact with the world.

With his widowed mother and the other children, he came south again, to San Francisco in 1879, and there Mrs. Stewart married her husband's former partner, Mr. Denari, a native of Italy who was born near Genoa, of an old-established Mediterranean family. As has been stated. these two gentlemen were once partners, in the store at Lone Pine, so Mr. Denari was able, to a degree not usually possible, to enter into the life of the bereaved lady and to afford her the best of companionship and support. When, therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Denari came still further south, to San Juan Capistrano, where Mr. Denari was to become an extensive landowner and farmer, giving up his mercantile interests, the son and stepson came with them. Mr. Denari was elected the first justice of the peace at San Juan Capistrano, but he also continued, with the able assistance of his wife, to farm; and Henry worked on the ranch and very naturally grew up a farmer, too.

At Santa Ana, on July 12, 1911, he was married to Miss Ruth EnEarl, a native of Pipestone, Minn., and the daughter of James H. and Elizabeth (Shaubut) EnEarl, who settled in San Diego County, when Ruth was only five years old. They removed in time to Anaheim, and from the excellent high school of that pioneer town, the young lady was duly graduated. Two children have blessed this union of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. The elder is a boy, Henry A. Stewart, Jr., and the younger is a girl, Vir- ginia. James H. EnEarl served in a New York regiment in the Civil War, serving until the close of the war. As a young man he went to Minnesota where he was married. He and his wife now live in Anaheim. Their children are Ruth, Mrs. Stewart; Katharine, Mrs. Chamberlain of Chicago; Arnold served in the aviation section, U. S. Army, World War, and is now in business in Fullerton. Mr. Stewart owns some 300 hundred acres of excellent Orange County land, of which thirty-two acres are in full-bearing walnuts. He has 220 acres of lima beans, twenty acres of blackeyed beans, while twenty-eight acres are devoted to pasture, yards, etc.

In national politics Mr. Stewart is a Republican, and it goes without saying that he is both an admirer of and a warm friend of Hiram Johnson, ex-governor and U. S. senator, and the choice of many for president. As a public-spirited citizen, Mr. Stewart has sought to advance the interests of the township and county in which he has lived, in every way possible, and he has always labored in particular for better roads, believing that good highways have much to do with the progress of a nation.

LYMAN AND MABEL VANCE TREMAIN .- A distinguished Orange County couple who are "one hundred per cent Americans," are Lyman and Mabel Vance Tre- main. Mrs. Tremain is the earliest and perhaps the most successful osteopath in the county, and her husband, Lyman Tremain, is a well-known railway man from the East. He is well connected with the best of New York State families of lawyers, financiers and other professional and business men, and for years held responsible positions with leading railroads. In their cozy bungalow on the Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard they are at present rusticating contentedly and so enjoying a much-needed rest. .

Lyman Tremain was born at Albany, N. Y., and is a grandson of the late Lyman Tremain, judge of the New York Court of Appeals. His mother was Eliza Martin, a sister of Edward S. Martin, the editor of "Life." She was born and reared in western New York, near Auburn. Mr. Tremain's father was Grenville Tremain, of the well known law firm of Peckham and Tremain, of Albany, N. Y., this partner, Rufus W. Peckham, afterwards becoming justice of the United States Supreme Court. A maternal grandfather of Lyman Tremain was Enos Thompson Throop Martin, a nephew of Enos Thompson Throop, at one time governor of New York. After the death of Grenville Tremain, which occurred when Lyman was seven years old, the widow, with his children, moved up to her father's home, on a farm near Anburn, N. Y. Her four children were as follows: Helen is the wife of William B. Anderson, an attorney in New York City; Lyman, of whom we write; Emily is in the U. S. Public Health Serv- ice and has an honorable record for service in France; Mabel is the wife of Robert S. Brewster, a son of Benjamin Brewster, who was John D. Rockefeller's first partner at Cleveland and later became chairman of the executive committee of the Standard Oil Company.

After his father's death, Lyman Tremain grew up on the farm near Auburn, N. Y., later attending the Quincy School at Geneva, N. Y., and then the Groton School at Groton. Mass., and at the latter place he was prepared for Harvard. He was early distinguished as an athlete, especially as a football player, and so enjoyed prestige from the day when he entered Harvard. He matriculated at Harvard in 1889, with the rest of the class of '93, and there pursued the classical course. At the end of two

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years, however, he entered the railroad business with the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany at Philadelphia, and for twelve years served in the traffic department. He rose to be contracting agent, and made a wide acquaintance with the leading Eastern manu- facturers and shippers. Through the influence of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company he secured a position as traffic manager of the Corn Products Refining Company of New York City and served them steadily for six years, after which he resigned and came to California in April. 1909, and went into the traffic claim department of the Santa Fe Railroad, working out from their Los Angeles office. In the fall of 1910, with his cousin, James Rochester, he set out an apple orchard at Harper, Orange County, the first commercial apple orchard there.

On October 10, 1912, Mr. Tremain was married to Dr. Mabel Vance, who was the first regularly licensed osteopathic woman physician and surgeon at Santa Ana. She was born at Mulberry Grove, Bond County, Ill., the daughter of Rev. Thomas Vance, a minister in the Christian Church. He had married Melvina Elam, whosc family belonged to the old settlers of that county and owned valuable coal lands there. Of their five children, Mrs. Tremain's twin sister, Mrs. May Reeve, lives at La Mirada; Dr. A. T. Vance is practicing at Los Angeles; Anna is the wife of James R. Coxen, state superintendent of vocational training at Laramie, Wyo .; Joy is the wife of William F. Wakefield of Fresno. When Mabel Vance was twelve years old her parents moved to Indianapolis, Ind., and there she attended the high school and Butler Uni- versity. She pursued a general scientific course, and thereby laid the foundation for her excellent professional work. She then entered Dr. A. T. Still's School of Osteo- pathy at Kirksville, Mo., from which she was graduated in 1905, with the degree of D.O., when she located at Oneonta, N. Y., and for two years was successfully engaged in practice. In the meantime her people had moved to California and so she also came to the land of gold and sunshine on the Pacific and located at Santa Ana in 1907, and in twelve years has built up a lucrative practice. She is a charter member of the Orange County Osteopathic Society and also a member of the California State Osteo- pathic Society.

About nine or ten years ago Dr. Tremain wisely purchased five acres of land on Santa Ana Canyon Boulevard, about two miles northwest of Olive, which they have improved and set to Valencia oranges which have now come into bearing; and in this beautiful orchard they have built their residence and now make their home.

Mr. Tremain, besides being an experienced railway manager and a successful horticulturist, is a fine vocalist, possesing a rare tenor voice, very pleasing to the ear, and he is a member of the Episcopal Church choir at Santa Ana. In many ways Mr. and Mrs. Tremain have identified themselves with the most notable movements for the welfare and uplift of society, and being devoted to Orange County, never tire of singing its praises and contribute in some way to its development every day.

FREDERICK CHARLES HEZMALHALCH .- The efficiency of the Orange County public service is reflected in the life and work of such well-equipped and faithful officials as Frederick Charles Hezmalhalch, the city clerk of Fullerton, who was born at Leeds, England, an ancient town probably once a Roman station, the largest and most flourishing city of Yorkshire, on the Aire, and the metropolis of the woolen manu- facture, on August 3, 1874. His father, Thomas Hezmalhalch, was born in Paterson. N. J., and educated in Chicago. He became superintendent of his father's foundry and during the Civil War moulded shells for the Government. He prepared for a mis- sionary in Leeds, England, and there he was married. In 1884 the family came to Glen- dale, Cal. Later he went to South Africa accompanied by his wife, who was his able assistant and there they did splendid work and had a very interesting experience.

They now make their home at Monrovia. The mother was in maidenhood Miss Charlotte Best, a native of Leeds, and is a woman of much ability. They were the parents of nine children; four grew up and are living, the eldest of whom is the subject of this sketch. When ten years old Fred C. came to California with his parents and attended hoth the grammar and high schools at Glendale, while he also enioved certain private instruction. He was a member of Troop D, Cavalry, at Los Angeles when the Spanish-American War broke out and he enlisted in Company F. Seventh California Regiment of Infantry, serving until the close of the war. He then began the study of music-both vocal and instrumental-and in time became a teacher of vocal music with his studio in Blanchard Hall; for three years of this time he was the solo tenor in St. Vihiana's Cathedral.

Giving up the profession of music he engaged in business in Glendale until De- cember, 1907, when he located at Fullerton and for two years had charge of the Harris ranch, after which for three years he was in the grocery and meat business and then with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for two years, until April, 1916, when he was elected city clerk of Fullerton, being reelected in 1918 and 1920, the last time

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for a four-year term, filling the position with much credit and entire satisfaction to all. During the late war Mr. Hezmalhalch took an active part in instructing and drilling the boys who were called to the colors and served acceptably as first lieutenant in the California Military Reserve, Company Seventy-eight, and also took part in all the bond and war drives.

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History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 123

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1700

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700